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Dinosaur Questions

For heating and air-conditioning, just like the plates on Stegosaurus. The sail on Spinosaurus (SPY-nuh-sawr-us), or spiny lizard, stuck up over its back, like the sail on a sailboat. It was held up by long, thin bones attached to the dinosaur's spine. The sail kept Spinosaurus comfortable. When cold, the dinosaur heated its sail in the sun's rays. That warmed its whole body. When too hot, the dinosaur moved so the sail was in the shade or picked up a breeze. What a really cool idea

Some dinosaurs had powerful spiked tails. Kentrosaurus KEN-truh-sawr-us , or spiked lizard, was only about 15 feet 5 m long and 1 ton 1.016 t in weight. But could it brawl Long, sharp spikes lined its back and tail. At the tip of its tail were four extremely big, spearlike points. When attacked, Kentrosaurus swung its tail at the enemy. The deadly spikes stabbed deep into the flesh of the attacking animal. With them, Kentrosaurus could fight off dinosaurs many times its size.

Mother dinosaurs probably didn't put all their weight on their eggs. They may have gently rested on top of them to keep the eggs warm. Scientists once believed that Oviraptor oh-vee-RAP-tuhr , or egg stealer, swiped the eggs of dinosaurs like Protoceratops proh-toh-SAIR-uh-tops , or first horned face. Then paleontologists made two discoveries an egg containing an unborn Oviraptor where they expected to find Protoceratops eggs, and the fossil of an adult female Oviraptor on top of a nest of...

But the most frightening ones belonged to Deinonychus dye-NON-ik-us , or terrible claw. This dinosaur was only 12 feet 3.6 m long. But it had a pair of unusually long, strong arms with three-fingered hands. Each finger ended in a curved, hook-shaped claw. But one terrible claw gave the dinosaur its name. Five inches 1.3 cm long, sickle-shaped, and sharply pointed, it stood out above the other foot claws. Deinonychus flung itself against an enemy, with feet raised. Then the...

Fossil tracks of various meat-eating dinosaurs seem to show they lived and hunted in packs, much like wolves. Some plant eaters also kept together in groups. Animals in packs were safer than animals living alone. Very young dinosaurs probably moved with the herd soon after birth. Paleontologists sometimes find many dinosaur fossils close together. That may mean whole herds lived and died together.

Millions of dinosaurs died on dry land. Their flesh and their bones rotted away. They are gone without a trace. And millions more were eaten by their enemies bones and all. Nothing is left of these dinosaurs, either. Which dinosaur fossil was found first Iguanodon ih-GWA-nuh-duhn , or iguana tooth. In 1821, Mary Ann Mantell was hunting fossils with her husband, Gideon, a British doctor. She found a huge fossil tooth. Her husband thought the tooth came from a giant iguana, which he named...

THE WORLD OF DINOSAURS 4 THE RISE OF DINOSAURS 18 THE TRIUMPH OF DINOSAURS 30 THE END OF DINOSAURS 43 Index 48 About the Authors and Illustrator 48 Text copyright 1998 by Melvin and Gil da Berger Illustrations copyright 1998 by Alan Male All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any...